Love Me to Death
by 13eyond The Boundaries
Summary: Ichigo has scizophrenia, but that's the least of his problems. Blood, gore, violence, blood, shounen-ai, blood... DISCONTINUED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE


Entry 1, July 1st, 2010

Fifteen year old Ichigo Kurosaki has schizophrenia and an unknown disease that makes him bleed through all openings of his face at various times. In addition to this, the disease seems to have a mind of it's own and will talk to him as well as through him. At first, we thought that this voice may have just been part of the boy's schizophrenia, but over time, it became apparent this was not so. We aren't as concerned with the boy's schizophrenia as we are with this disease. What could cause such problems, and is there a cure? Does any other person in the world have this disease, or is it only him?

For now, we have asked the Kurosaki family to relinquish his care to us. After a week and they have had time to spend with him and say there goodbyes, Ichigo will be placed in the psychiatric ward's care. We plan to have him in room 4444, with subject number 13, in hopes that they might be able to help each other work out some of their problems. We just hope that 13 does not harm or kill Ichigo, seeing as he has been dysfunctional lately.

Only time will tell what could become of the both of them…

Yamamoto

"Ichigo… Ichigo…"

I know that voice. That's the voice that always talks to me. I don't know who it is, why it speaks to me, or where it came from. All I know is that the voice is male. The voice sounds kind of like me, except the voice is watery and distorted. Somebody must have put the voice there, I'm sure of it.

Maybe my mother put the voice there, because she was angry at me. I told Dad about it, and about how I thought Mother had put it there. He said that it wasn't true, and that it was because of my schizophrenia that I thought that. I'm not quite sure what schizophrenia is. I read about it in a book at school, I know what the definition of it is, but, truly, what is it?

Can you touch schizophrenia with your hand? If you cracked open someone's skull, would you see it inside, cuddled up next to their brain? I don't understand…

Then again, maybe my mother put those thoughts there, too. It is, after all, my fault that she died, so she must be angry at me.

"Ichigo, you are so stupid… Your own mother hated you so much that she left you…"

That was the voice again. He is the only one that I don't have a name for. I don't know who he is, because I've never met him before. I know that his words are true, because Mom told me that she hated me. After she died, I woke up with her on top of me. We were still next to the river, where we had been flung when she was hit by the semi truck.

She didn't smile at me, like she normally did. Instead, she was glaring down at me with her glazed over eyes. For a very long time, she didn't say anything, and when she did speak, I had wished so much that she hadn't.

"I hate you," she had said, "you are such an ungrateful son! Didn't you say that you would protect me no matter what?"

I had only been six, then, so I didn't know quite what I had done wrong. Now, though, now I know. I should have been the one who died. Dad, Yuzu, and Karin, none of them need me. They all need Mom, so that they can be happy. Mom tells me so.

"Little King, he sat on a wall… and little King had a great fall. But little King's only horse and all of his men aren't going to put _him _back together again…"

The voice began to giggle until he broke into unrestrained laughter. By now, I was used to it. Laughter was a lot better than screaming, like I got from most of the voices who had names.

"Ichigo, are you in there?" asked a small, familiar voice through my door.

"Yes, Yuzu! Do you need anything?" I said in a slightly raspy voice from the usual screaming in my sleep.

"No, I'm just checking on you… What do you want for breakfast?"

"You shouldn't get anything!" my mother screeched.

"Yes, he should!" argued Sora, Inoue's deceased brother.

They often argued with each other. My mother - who would only ever come when she saw a chance to berate me - would always say that I didn't deserve something, and Sora would argue that I did. I tried to only listen to Sora most of the time, because he never said anything mean to me.

"Ichigo, don't listen to your mother. Why don't you ask for waffles?" Sora said in a reassuring voice.

I nodded to him before speaking up to Yuzu.

"Can I have some waffles?" I asked her.

"Sure," she said merrily, "go ahead and take a shower while I'm making breakfast!"

"Okay, I will," I replied, preparing to get out of bed.

I heard Yuzu skip off down the hallway as I walked over to my dresser. I pulled out some faded black skinny jeans and a black shirt that had 'It's not that fun being God…" in glowing white letters. Sora was actually the one who had spotted the shirt; I took a liking to the thing almost instantly.

After I had a good outfit together, I opened my door and stepped out into the hallway. The door was closed, so Karin must be in there, brushing her teeth. I leaned against the wall next to the door knob, waiting for her to come out. The door opened, Karin coming out as I had expected. She jumped a couple inches into the air, as she probably didn't notice me at first, which caused me to laugh.

"Sorry, Karin. I didn't mean to spook you," I apologized, "Yuzu told me to take a shower."

She merely nodded in my direction before walking off into the living room and sitting on the couch. She was most likely going to watch the television, like she normally did in the morning time.

"You know, you're way to nice to those two!"

"No. I'm not," I told the voice, "if anything, it's the other way around. Karin and Yuzu are so much nicer to me than I have ever been to them."

"Just because they are nice to you doesn't mean that they deserve you being nice to them. They could stab you in the back."

"They would never do that!" I shouted, stepping into the bathroom and slamming the door shut.

After that, the voice grew silent. I was content to wash myself off and get into my clothes in silence.

"Ichigo, you look beautiful!" Sora said.

"Wah! Sora, I think you mean handsome! You're too used to Inoue, I'm a guy," I corrected him with a major blush on my face.

"Whatever, kiddo. I'm going to go and lecture Masaki for being mean to you again. Don't let that other one get to you so much. I'm sure he means well, whatever he's trying to do to you," Sora said before disappearing.

I sighed and started brushing my teeth after running a brush sloppily through my hair.

"You look kind of stupid, you know? Not that I really care…"

"Grimmjow! That's mean! I never say anything about you and your outrageous hair or anything. If people think orange is weird, they should see you!" I cried.

"Heh, you've got some spunk, don't you?" he said, flicking my forehead, "Anyway, Ulquiorra told me to come baby-sit you, seeing as Sora and Masaki aren't here."

I rubbed my forehead and glared up at Grimmjow. Instead of saying anything, I opened the door and stepped out before promptly shutting it in his face. I heard him shout in surprise and stifled a small giggle, walking down the hallway. Once I was in the kitchen, I immediately smelled the bacon that was almost done.

Yuzu had already strategically placed the dishes, waffles, and eggs on the kitchen table. Dad was in his seat, asleep on his food, while Karin was eating her food in the living room, watching the television. I sat down in my seat just as Yuzu put a couple pieces of bacon on my plate. I quietly thanked her before eating my food. Once I was done eating, I stood up and cleaned everyone's dishes in the sink.

I turned around and sat down at the table, where I had previously been sitting. I patted Yuzu's head before calling Karin into the room.

"As you all know, today is the day that I am supposed to leave-"

"But why are you leaving, Ichi-nee?" Yuzu asked me desperately.

"Because, he's sick, Yuzu," Karin explained, "the doctor is going to make him feel better."

"He is?" she asked in a small, hesitant voice.

"Yes," I told her, "the doctor is going to make me better so I don't bleed a lot anymore, or act really weird. You don't want me to do that either, do you?"

"No…" she replied, sniffling.

I wrapped my arms around Yuzu in a tight hug, whispering that everything was going to be okay.

"Hey, you should hug Karin, too. You don't know if you're even going to come back." Grimmjow advised.

I did as I was told and hugged Karin as well. Just then, I heard a car honk outside.

"Well, it looks like it's time to go!" Grimmjow told me.

I opened the front door, and sure enough, the ambulance was out there. Silently, I wondered why a psychiatric ward was using an ambulance to pick me up. As soon as I was outside of the door, I felt two feet plant themselves into the middle of my back. I fell down, hitting my face into the concrete.

"Son, you did not tell me goodbye! How could you give your sisters a hug and me nothing?" whined my dad from upon my back.

I ignored Grimmjow's snickers and instead made myself busy with throwing my dad off of my back.

"I didn't tell you good-bye because I knew you would do something like this, you stupid father!" I shouted at him as he landed in a bush, "Bye guys, I love you all!"

I began to walk down the sidewalk, but stopped when Grimmjow broke into laughter. I shouted at him to shut up before getting into the ambulance and sitting in the bed that was prepared for me. I ignored the weird looks from everyone in the ambulance. They act like they'd never seen someone talking before!

"Ichigo Kurosaki?" asked the man driving the car.

The man looked very tall, and was wearing a long trench coat that was torn in various places at the bottom. His dark mahogany hair was long and wavy, his chin occupied with stubble, and upon his face was a pair of sunglasses so that his eye color was hidden.

"Yeah," I confirmed, "I'm him."

"Ah. I'm Zangetsu, the caretaker of patients in hallway one of building three. In case you haven't realized yet, that's where you will be. Your room number will be 4444. Isn't that funny?" he asked.

"Sure…" I said, chuckling nervously, "if you like bad omens and all…"

"Oh, don't worry! Subject number 13 has never had any problems in there at all, I'm sure that you will do fine."

I stared at him, wondering who this 'subject number 13' was. In fact, that's even worse! Death and bad luck in one place! How am I to survive?

"Oh, that's easy…!" Grimmjow exclaimed, "You don't die!"

"Or you could make a scene so that they don't put you in there," said the nameless voice.

I noticed that we were almost to the psychiatric ward and hoped that the voice wasn't saying what I thought he was saying.

"What kind of scene?" I asked him cautiously.

"Oh, it doesn't really matter. Just don't do something that makes you look even crazier. That will get you somewhere worse than where you're going."

"Yeah, well, then there's nothing that I can do." I stated bluntly.

"Fine! If you won't, then I will. I don't really want to stay somewhere like that, and seeing as whatever happens to you, happens to me, I'm going to do something…"

After that, he was quiet. I didn't really mind, even if silence bugged me now.

"Damn, that guy is so scary," Grimmjow informed me, "be glad you don't know what he looks like, too. Not really a pretty sight to see, I swear!"

I laughed at Grimmjow's miniature rant before getting out of the ambulance, as it had come to a stop. I looked up at the sign above the doorway to see that it said 'Karakura Asylum.' I heard the voice grumbling to himself, which caught my attention. I almost always could understand what he was saying, so it was odd that I couldn't.

I then noticed that my vision was becoming very blurry. Weird, why would I be crying right now? I'm not upset or anything.

"Uh, Ichigo, you might want to check again!" Grimmjow worriedly recommended.

I rubbed a fingertip across my wet cheek, holding my hand up so that I could see it. There was a red substance, slowly dripping down my finger. I whimpered, looking back at Grimmjow, whom was now standing beside me.

"G-Grimmjow, what's happening? It's only supposed to happen on Tuesdays and Thursdays!" I whispered, blurry eyes wide.

"I'm not sure… Do you want me to get Ulquiorra?" he asked me.

"Yes! Get Ulquiorra, now!" I shouted as blood began to leak out of my nose as well.

I could vaguely hear the people from the ambulance conversing amongst themselves. I also heard Zangetsu, but I couldn't focus due to the blood coming through my ear canals. When I opened my mouth to scream in terror, the thick liquid began to pour out of my mouth.

I felt like I was sucking on a penny, and it tasted horrible. My skin felt sore throughout my body, as if the blood was trying to force it's way out of my pores, as well. Hands felt as if they had wrapped themselves around my neck, constricting and suffocating me. I would have fallen unconscious, but something stopped me.

Eventually, I could breath again, and I realized that Grimmjow and Ulquiorra were finally here. I looked up at them through the blood that was gushing out of my tear ducts to see Grimmjow with a grim face and Ulquiorra giving me a nearly invisible smile (a mere twitch of the lips, if you will). Ulquiorra was holding two white arms back from my neck.

My eyes followed the arms up to their body to see what had just been strangling me. The owner of the arms looked very gruesome to my eyes. He towered over top of me, his skin and hair was very pale. His body was decorated with dry blood red war stripes, a hole in his chest, his hair a mullet, and a mask adorning his face. His eyes were the only things that weren't red or white, instead, they were black and yellow.

I stepped back from him as well as I could with blood running down my face from every opening. It wasn't as easy as it looked, seeing as the thing apparently had a tail, and used it to trip me. Once I had fallen, he ripped away from Ulquiorra and leaned over top of my body, allowing me to look into his eyes, which did not reflect any light, yet glowed.

I suddenly felt as if the thing was the same as the disease that I had. Grimmjow was right, I didn't want to see what he looked like. I looked at Grimmjow pleadingly, not liking my current situation. Ulquiorra, seeing that Grimmjow wasn't helping me, kicked him into the disease that was hovering over top of my body. Both of them fell on top of me, and I let out an 'oof!' along with the rest of the oxygen in my lungs.

Grimmjow and the disease were soon off of me, both arguing with each other. I was now attempting to rub some of the blood off my face at the least, since even more had started to come out once they had fallen on me. My shirt was now soaked in the blood that I was losing, some of the liquid pooling on the pavement beneath me.

Ulquiorra helped me stand up, patting my back and glaring at Grimmjow and the disease. I saw Zangetsu walking towards me through the red glaze on my eyes. He tapped my hand, so I figured that he wanted me to hold his hand. Most likely so that I didn't get lost, where ever we were going. Most of the people around me seemed worried. I wasn't sure why. Ulquiorra told me that it was because I was bleeding out of every possible opening in my body.

Trust me, if you look in my pants, there's blood there, too. The people freaking out only increased once we had made our way inside. In fact, two of the people in the ward looked strangely familiar. Too familiar. The two people looked exactly like Ulquiorra and Grimmjow. They weren't completely calm, but they weren't completely freaking out like most of the people, either. They really seemed like genuine Ulquiorra and Grimmjow. Even though Zangetsu was pulling me along, I wanted to stop and confirm my suspicions, so I pulled my hand from his.

"H-hey," I said as best I could through the blood, tapping Ulquiorra's shoulder, "are you U-"

I had to stop for a moment as a very big glob of blood came out of my mouth.

"Are you Ulquiorra?" I tried again, hoping it sounded as good to him as it did to me.

"Trash," he mumbled in surprise, "how do you know my name?"

I tried to wipe the blood from my face in an attempt to look a little bit more presentable before speaking again.

"What are you talking about? I'm Ichigo, I've known you ever since Mom died," I made an effort to remind him.

"I'm sorry, Ichigo, was it? I don't believe that I have ever met you. I'm sorry, but you must have the wrong guy," he said shaking his head, starting to walk away.

"Ulquiorra Schiffer!" I tried to raise my voice and be heard.

He seemed to notice, but didn't pay attention. Didn't pay attention, that is, until I started to violently cough up blood, hunching over from all the pain. My throat felt as if it was being torn apart from the amount of blood coming out, and how fast it was doing so. Ulquiorra - the 'real' one - whom now seemed truly concerned, now ran over to my side.

He started to pat my back, just like my Ulquiorra did, but his hand seemed warm. His hand wasn't cold, like the hand of a corpse. I would have leaned into his touch, too, if it weren't for the fact that I was now coughing as if a lung were trying to come out. Who knows? Maybe that was what I was doing. The 'fake' Ulquiorra and Grimmjow had temporarily disappeared at some point.

"Grimmjow! Get over here!" Ulquiorra ordered.

Eventually, Ulquiorra, along with Grimmjow and Zangetsu had taken me to the rather large hospital area of the main ward. I figured it was mostly this large because of the patients who were depressed, or had anger issues or personality disorders. All of them tend to cause pain to themselves or others, so since this place was so big, it needed an equally big area to take care of the wounds. Obviously, I wasn't one of these people.

I don't believe that I am wounded, really. If I were bleeding blood that I was supposed to be using, then I would have passed out already. I think that it's kind of like when a woman menstruates, it's extra blood that isn't needed. Except that I bleed normally twice a week and constantly hear a voice in my head that sometimes talks through me, but hey, who asked for the dirty details? I heard that thing laughing at my thoughts.

He probably thought that this whole ordeal was funny; in fact, this was probably all some big joke to him. As long as he doesn't get hurt through all this, he'd just laugh and carry on. Simple as that.

I hadn't realized that I had gone through another round of catatonia again until I had actually come back. I was staring up at the ceiling with Ulquiorra, Grimmjow, Zangetsu, and a nurse all around me. I was still bleeding, but I was no longer in my previous clothes, and there wasn't so much blood caked on my face. I was tucked under a crispy warm blanket with Ulquiorra's hand on my forehead.

The only sign of emotion on his face was his furrowed brow, and he was looking down at my face. It was strange to me, my Ulquiorra wouldn't be confused like this, and he is almost always smiling at me. This Ulquiorra had actually seemed slightly repulsed by me at first, so why was he touching me with that expression?

Better yet, why am I bleeding so much? I normally never bleed this much. Come to think of it, I actually didn't bleed on Tuesday, or last week at all. Had the blood become built up? Is that why I'm still bleeding?

"Oh, little King _does _have a brain after all!" cheered the disease, "I was beginning to think that there was no hope for you! Yeah, the blood was built up. I figured this would happen. So, for being bad, I'm making you bleed a lot more than usual. You're a big boy, though, right?"

He then began to snicker at my misfortune, but no longer spoke. I decided to ignore the disease in favor of something much more pleasant. Such as the voice of Ulquiorra, who had noticed I was no longer in my open eyed unconsciousness.

"Are you okay?" he asked me, trying to hide his confused expression.

I figured he may have forgotten that I was bleeding so heavily, but I wasn't about to bring it back up.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just another round of catatonia," I reassured him, glad that there wasn't nearly as much blood as before.

He seemed to be attempting to hide the fact that he sighed heavily in relief. Again, I'm not going to bring it up, it's best if I don't. I then felt a rough grip on my shoulder, the opposite side of Ulquiorra (whom was at my left). I glanced to my right to see a mop of messy blue hair. Looking down a bit, I saw the face of Grimmjow. He didn't look nearly as concerned as Ulquiorra, rather, he looked annoyed.

That was even more strange than how Ulquiorra was acting. My Grimmjow was almost always caring, never genuinely annoyed. Sure, he'd insult me, but he never had this expression. It was strange for me.

"So, _this _is the reason why we aren't in the cafeteria getting the free brownies? Seriously!" he said in an annoyed tone.

I covered my mouth, hoping that the bubbly feeling I was getting wasn't a laughing feeling. If I laughed, then the bleeding would become worse. I knew from experience. Unfortunately for me, I was in a giggly mood at the moment. What started off as small giggles broke out into full blown laughter behind my hand.

The blood began to leak down my wrist and between my fingers, some even bursting from my nose. Ulquiorra got me to sit up, then began to rub circles into my back. I was grateful to the kind gesture, because it soothed me, if only a little. Grimmjow had an expression on his face as if he didn't know whether to be worried, surprised, or disgusted.

The nurse, whom I had forgotten about up until now, came over to my bedside with a tube branching off in two places hooked up to a machine. She put one side of the tube in one of my nostrils, the other going with it's corresponding nostril. I felt oxygen pushing into my lungs through the tube.

"Is this normal for you?" Ulquiorra asked me.

"Kind of," I replied with some blood leaking down to my chin, "it normally only happens in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So it is a little bit strange, but I wasn't bleeding on Tuesday this week, or at all last week."

"Oh," he said, "what are you in for, any way? I'm here for depression, mostly, as well as self mutilation. They think that it's kind of like schizophrenia, but I don't really get hallucinations or anything like that…"

"Ha! I guess I beat you, then. I actually do have schizophrenia, but I don't think that it's why I'm here. I have some sort of mental illness that makes me bleed copious amounts from all the openings in my body. It also kind of talks to me… And sometimes it uses me to talk to other people…"

Towards the end of my reply, I lost steam. I wasn't really proud of the disease. In fact, I really hated him.

"Uh, hey guys! You forgot about me! I'm in here for anger issues, beat up a few people and all, and I have a split personality. One is the me right now, the other one is Pantera," Grimmjow said, slightly interjecting the conversation.

"Awesome!" I exclaimed, "Is he cool?"

Grimmjow wasn't as confident as before. Instead, now he was blushing as bright as a ripe strawberry.

"Y-yeah… I suppose…"

"Cool, I can't wait to meet him," I said, "he's probably so much cooler than Sora, Masaki, the other Grimmjow and Ulquiorra, and the disease…"

After saying that, I laid back into the pillow to rest my aching head. The blood was finally stopping, allowing me to breath a bit more easily. Ulquiorra and Grimmjow were now looking at me with odd expressions. I looked up at them, brow furrowing.

"What?" I asked.

"Other Grimmjow and Ulquiorra?" Ulquiorra queried curiously.

"Oh, that. Well, I already met you guys," I explained in a confused manner.

"It must be his schizophrenia," Zangetsu interpolated, stepping forward, "you may both leave for now. Since you two are getting along so well with him, will you watch out for Ichigo when I'm not around?"

They both affirmed their consent before leaving the room. I watched as they disappeared behind the curtain, wondering when it was that I would see them again. After I had been staring at the curtain for what felt like an hour (but was probably only a few minutes), I heard someone clear their throat. I turned my head to see Zangetsu standing where Ulquiorra had previously been.

"The front office already knows that you have arrived, it seems. Since I see that your bleeding has finally ceased, I think that it is about time that we show you to your room. I will warn you only once, your roommate is in for a personality disorder. He is known to be very violent lately, so please do try not to provoke him," Zangetsu said as he pulled the covers off of me.

I felt very cold without the crispy blanket, but I figured that if I really wanted to get under a blanket, I could do so in my new room. After the nurse removed the tubes, Zangetsu pushed back the curtain for me before leading me out the door, and outside. We walked down the sidewalk until we got to building three, hallway one.

I dreaded the moment that I would walk into my room, but I wasn't about to tell Zangetsu that. It probably wouldn't help me at all, any way. My fear grew greater and greater as the numbers grew higher and higher. Then, we were at 4434, and there were only ten more to go. I nearly jumped once we started to approach my room. My roommate was obviously already in there.

"You guys stay the hell away from me! I'll defenestrate you if you get any closer!" screamed a voice that sounded kind of like the disease.

Well, granted, his voice wasn't too distorted, and it didn't fluctuate as if it was coming from under water. Based on how he sounded, he was definitely angry at the moment.

"Please, subject number 13, we just want to give you your medication, and there isn't a window big enough in this room for you to defenestrate us!" said a more calm voice.

"My _name _is Koichi! And I don't want any medication!"

"So, this guy doesn't like getting his medication?" asked Sora.

I jumped at his voice, not expecting it after all this time.

"Yeah, I suppose. I guess he's kind of like me, then. It wouldn't surprise me if it's because they're using a syringe. Or it may be a drug that causes him to act strange, or fall asleep. If you ask me, it's not anger, but fear that he's acting on," I explained to Sora.

"Ah, that makes sense, then. Do you think that it's actually safe to go in there right now?" he asked me in a sort of motherly tone.

"Nah, if he is scared, like how I think he is, he might attack us, too. But hey, I'm bored," I replied, opening the door.

As I walked in, all eyes turned to me. Realizing how stupid what I had just done was, I nervously chuckled. Now that I was in the room, I got a good look at my roommate, whom had his back in a corner, fists up. He was albino; he had white skin, white hair, and red eyes. His hair was the same length as my own, and just as unkempt. In fact, he looked exactly like me, minus the color scheme. Hell, he could be my albino twin!

Now that Koichi noticed me, he had a very bad look in his eye. Like he was planning something that involved me, and I wouldn't like it. He shoved past the two nurses, whom were in the room with a syringe, running right towards me. Before I had know what happened, I was in a weak strangle hold in front of Koichi. Of course, the strangle hold didn't hurt nearly as much as when the disease had strangled me. I could still breathe perfectly, which satisfied me as it was.

"Hey! Y-you stay back! Stay away from both of us!" Koichi shouted, nudging me with his elbow.

"Uh, yeah! I think he means it! Please go away, this really hurts!" I attempted to whimper.

The nurses seemed convinced for now, and left the room. Zangetsu also left, shaking his head in disapproval, as he knew that Koichi wasn't hurting me.

"Hey, that was pretty good, newbie," Koichi said to me, as he released his 'strangle hold.'

"Thanks. My name's Ichigo. You're Koichi, right?" I introduced myself.

"Ah, yeah, that's me. Koichi Shirosaki," he said, sitting down on a very messy looking bed.

"Oh, cool, my last name is Kurosaki," I told him, looking around the room.

"Heh, black and white, huh?" he asked, chuckling.

"Yeah. I guess you could look at it that way," I replied, laughing with him.

Suddenly, Koichi stopped laughing, stepping over to where I was standing. He shoved me down on a bed that I hadn't known was behind me, placing both hands on the bed beside my neck.

"So, what got you in here? Kill anybody? Or maybe you're a cutter?" he queried, spotting the large amount of blood on my shirt.

"No, I have schizophrenia, and an unknown mental illness. I'm mostly in here for the mental illness, otherwise my father would be able to take care of me," I explained, upset that he would assume something like self mutilation, let alone murder.

"Any details? I'm in here for a behavior disorder, by the way. I have violent tendencies, so my parents didn't want to deal with it."

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be, I hated them."

"Oh. Well, I call it the disease."

"Eh?"

He had a confused expression, as if he had become lost.

"You wanted to know about my mental illness. I call him the disease. He doesn't have a name like all the other people that talk to me, and he looks really freaky, too," I explained, recalling his gruesome appearance.

"Eck, sounds horrible…"

"It's not too bad. He tends to talk to me a lot, and he'll also talk to others sometimes. I'm not sure why, but it happens. Who knows? He might be able to use my body the same way he uses my voice."

"What about the blood all over your shirt…?"

"Oh, that. The disease makes me bleed on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"… But, today is Wednesday…" he pointed out.

"I didn't bleed on Tuesday, or last week. The disease says that he was building up blood."

"How can you bleed that much and not pass out or die?"

"I'm not sure…" I trailed off.

"Wait a minute!" he exclaimed, "Tomorrow is Thursday, isn't it?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Doesn't that mean that you're supposed to bleed tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I suppose… Oh well, only time can tell, you know?"

Koichi finally got off from on top of me, allowing me to sit up. He sat down beside me, giving a hesitant smile my way.

"You know that they're going to come back, right?" I told him.

"Who?" he asked, confused.

"The nurses."

"Probably, but I can handle them!" he cheered, pumping his fist.

Just then, the nurses slammed the door open, walking right in. Koichi gave a terrified yelp before leaping behind my back, cowering in fear. I laughed at his cowardice, seeing as only just a few seconds ago, he was showing such bravery. I faintly heard him whispering something over and over again, like a mantra.

"… not the butt, not the butt, not the butt…"

I stifled my giggle in favor of watching the nurses putting the strangely colored liquid in the syringe. What was it? I had never seen it before, and my dad was a doctor!

"Koichi, please, you're only making this more difficult than it has to be," pleaded the nurse that wasn't holding the syringe.

"Nah, let him struggle, it makes my job more interesting," said the other nurse, squirting some of the liquid into the air.

Koichi began to back up towards the headboard of the bed, dragging me along with him. I felt like a human meat shield, stuck between the syringe and Koichi. Come to think of it, was I protecting Koichi… or the nurses…?

"Maybe both?" wondered Sora aloud.

I jumped, forgetting that Sora had been with me all of this time.

"Don't scare me like that, Sora! I forgot that you were even there!" I shouted in surprise.

The nurse who was holding the syringe now dropped her syringe. I felt a little nervous as everyone stared at me. Koichi was now laughing at me. I'm not sure why.

"It's because I'm dead, smartness. They can't see me," Sora said.

"But Karin and Yuzu always talked to you," I said, officially confused.

"Yeah, and they never were on topic, were they?" he mused in an uninterested tone.

"They weren't? I could have sworn they were… Why are you here any way?"

"'Cause Grimmjow and Ulquiorra are being guardian angels over themselves," he said, cracking up laughing.

"Guardian angels over themselves? That sounds stupid," I said, laughing with him.

"Uh, Ichigo… Who are you talking to…?" Koichi said nervously now.

"That's a stupid question, he's right there," I said pointing where Sora was, "his name is Sora."

"Ichigo, he can't see dead people either," Sora said.

"He can't see dead people either?" I asked and Sora shook his head, "Why not?"

"I don't know, but those nurses are talking about drugging you or something. You might want to pay attention."

"What?" I shouted in disbelief.

Everyone was now looking at me, including Koichi. I chuckled nervously, looking back and forth between Koichi and the nurses.

"I see dead people?" I tried.

The nurses looked at each other before one of them pulled out a walkie-talkie.

"Unohana? Our replacement subject number 15 seems to be acting strange. Permission to put him under emergency sleep medicine?" she said into the walkie-talkie.

"Wait, number 15? What is he doing?" the walkie-talkie asked in a womanly voice.

"Talking to himself," she told the walkie-talkie

"There's nothing wrong with that. Number 15 is schizophrenic. If he starts bleeding or speaking of morbid thoughts, I want you to bring him to me immediately. Unless that happens, please don't bother me," the walkie-talkie said.

"Yes ma'am," she told the walkie-talkie.

I couldn't help but to laugh at her misfortune. Did she not look at my file or something? If anybody was in the wrong, it was her.

"Well," she said, "it seems that there is nothing wrong with you as of the moment. Seeing as we have wasted yet another syringe, we will not waste anymore time on you today, number 13. Just know that you _will _get your medication tomorrow."

After telling us this, both of the nurses left the room, closing and locking the door. Koichi started laughing hysterically. I think it was one of those laugh or cry situations, so I decided to humor him and laugh as well.

"That was so close," he said a little nervously, "that syringe scares me so much!"

"Why?" I asked him curiously.

"Oh, that's right, you don't know what it's for. Depending on the patient, the nurses administer medicine. The medication that they wanted to give me makes me a little bit loopy. Trust me, if you think I'm scary when I'm angry, you _don't _want to see me loopy. The nurses think the medicine helps, and so they give me more and more… Eck…" he explained, shivering in slight disgust.

"My father never puts me on any type of medication for my behavior. He believes that therapy and socialization helps more than chemicals," I told him, smiling proudly.

"Hold on a minute," he said, holding up a finger to my face.

Koichi got up from his spot on the bed and walked over to the door. He put his ear to the door, as if to listen, then banged on it.

"Old man, I know you're out there! What do you want?" he shouted as he banged on the door.

Suddenly, the door opened, and in walked Zangetsu, smiling at both of us.

"Koichi, I am _not _old," he said, walking in and sitting on the couch, "I'm just checking up on you two, making sure everything is going okay. Especially after all the bleeding that Ichigo did after getting out of the ambulance."

I didn't say anything, just scratched my head in embarrassment. Koichi came back over to the bed, taking a seat beside me.

"No, really. Why the hell are you here? You hardly ever came here before," Koichi said skeptically.

"Can't I just come and visit my only patients?" he whined in a way that didn't suit his face.

"No, damn it!" he yelled, kicking him.

"Wait a minute," I said, "only patients?"

"Oh, that's easy," Zangetsu said from his sprawled out position on the floor, "the area that you're in right now is one of our intensive care units. You and Koichi are the only ones with the particular problems you have, so not just anyone can take care of you. I'm specially trained to take care of you guys. By the way, Koichi, I actually came for Q & A. If you have any questions, now's your chance."

"Earlier, that nurse said that I was 'replacement subject number 15.' What did she mean by that…?" I asked, Koichi tensing and looking down at the floor apprehensively.

"Koichi killed the last subject number 15 when he was administered his medication. You're a bit of a replacement for that person. Normally, number 16 or 14 would replace number 15, but we couldn't pass up the chance when you came along," he explained in a tone that said he didn't care whether that scared me or not.

"You killed somebody?" I asked Koichi in disbelief.

"Heh heh heh, it makes sense, little King. It makes sense and you know it. You should let me play with him! Come on, I won't hurt him… too much…" the disease said, cackling madly.

I clutched my head as I got an unbelievably strong migraine. I felt a hand on my shoulder, but didn't know who it was. I tried to swat them away, scared that I would become even more hurt. The pain intensified more and more until I was seeing red again. I don't know what happened next, all I know is that I couldn't sense anything and that I had a sensation of falling.

I wasn't sure what was going on. One minute, Ichigo had yelled at me, and the next, he was clutching his head in pain. Was it that disease that he had told me about? I didn't know, but I wanted to comfort him. I tried placing my hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture, and was shocked when he slapped my hand off.

My anger was starting to get the better of me, but I knew that it was best to keep it under control. I took a deep breath to try and calm down before bringing my attention back to Ichigo, whom was now panting in exhaustion. He started to tilt forward, and I thought that it was in pain, until he actually fell onto the floor.

Ichigo's body started to get light tremors, which quickly turned into convulsions. Then, he was still, completely unmoving. I started to worry, thinking that he was dead because of how quiet the room had become and his lack of movement. I got down on my hands and knees on the floor, checking his vital signs. I first checked his pulse, to make sure his heart was still beating. It took a minute, but even though it was weak, his pulse was there. I sat up a bit to look at his face, getting ready to check if he was breathing.

I just looked at him for a few seconds, then looked up at his face. I became frightened when Ichigo's eyes shot open just as I looked at him. His irises had become yellow, the sclera now black, horrifying me for some strange reason. He gave me a savage grin before grabbing the wrist of my hand that I had been using to check his pulse and yanked me down to the floor. I yelped in surprise and pain, being thrown down underneath him.

"… And you must be Koichi…" he said in a voice different from his own, in that it would vibrate as if it were underwater.

"And you must be the disease," I said in a mocking voice, bringing a laugh from him.

I had half forgotten that Zangetsu was still in the room, but wasn't paying attention to him right now. If I had, I would have noticed him talking on a walkie-talkie, just like the nurse had.

"So, you've heard of me from little King, then?" the disease said, laughing manically.

"Yeah, I know that you hurt him a lot," I told him crossly.

Then, he shut up, looking me in the eye.

"I do _not _hurt my King. Why would I? If he dies, I die. No, the blood he bleeds, I bleed. Most of the blood he bleeds actually is mine, in a way," he said, not laughing one bit.

"Why are you here?" I asked him, figuring that I wouldn't get much more on the previous subject.

"… A little birdie told me that a certain someone killed somebody… You could say that I'm here for a bit of a fight. I never get to do that much, since King is so stingy with the body," he explained stretching.

"You actually expect me to fight for no reason?" I asked him, laughing in his face, "I'd strangle you, but you're in Ichigo's body. I'm not laying a finger on you."

"Oh, you don't have to… but I'll still hurt you whether you fight me or not," he said, smirking morbidly.

He wrapped his- no! He wrapped Ichigo's fingers around my neck, constricting the breath out of me. I began to wheeze for oxygen, small stars spread across my fading vision. I knew that I would soon black out if things were kept this way, and if I black out, I might kill somebody again.

In a desperate attempt to not let this happen, I kicked Ichigo off of me with all the strength that I could muster. Ichigo fell back into the bed behind him, his head colliding with the metal with a sickening crack. Unfortunately, he was soon up again, looking at me with an excited glint in his eyes.

"Now, _that's _what I'm talking about!" he exclaimed, "Although, you'll have to try harder than that if you want to _actually _hurt me. I didn't even feel a thing!"

He lunged forward at me like an animal, grabbing my face and throwing me back. I shouted out in shock as my head crashed into the linoleum floor. Red began to creep across my vision, as if I was going to lose it if much more happened, whether I was on the receiving end or not.

Just then, five nurses came running in the room, three boys and two girls. They were all eying Ichigo apprehensively, as if he were lethal. I wasn't quite sure whether they should be watching him or me at this point, since I was going to snap any second.

Apparently, they were right to watch Ichigo, as he jumped onto my bed and pulled my knife from under my pillow. Damn it, and I thought that I had hidden it perfectly! How did he find it? Nevertheless, he flipped open the knife, swinging it on his finger from the small chain connected for a belt loop. He eyed all the nurses, sizing them up to find the first to attack.

Deep inside, I knew what he was doing was wrong, but I didn't consciously realize it. At the moment, just a movement from anyone, violent or not, could set me off. I was getting an urge to help him. Do I want to just hurt them, or kill them? I know what I want. I want them to bleed. To be covered in blood. Is that what he wants, too?

When Ichigo caught the knife mid spin and leapt forward, an insane feeling grew up inside of me. The feeling took over all else, destroying common sense and reason. I didn't feel like anything was impossible or wrong anymore. Ichigo stabbed one of the female nurses, blood spurting out as if from a water fountain and drawing all my attention towards it. I ran forward and pounced onto the back of one of the male doctors. With a laugh of excitement, I clawed my fingers into his eyes and bit at his neck crazily.

I wanted to make blood come out, like Ichigo had. I wanted more blood. I bit down into the man's neck, right over the large vein I knew was there, until my teeth met under his flesh. I jerked the piece of muscle out from the neck it belonged to, spitting it onto the floor. I then threw the eyes I had clawed out down with the bloody mess. If the man wasn't dead by now, he was definitely suffering. That didn't matter, though, nothing mattered but slaughter. I had to cause more pain, more killing!

I dropped down from the man's back, kicking him to the floor and stomping on his vulnerable neck. When I was sure that he was dead, I looked up to see Ichigo repeatedly stabbing the woman he had stabbed at first, as well as slashing any who would dare to come near.

I laughed hysterically before jumping at one of the remaining two men, punching him in the temple to instantly kill him. The man fell to the ground, and I jumped at the other woman. She screamed in terror as I came upon her, slapping at my face. I got a few scratches, but that didn't phase me one bit.

I was about to forcefully open the woman's mouth with my hands to get at her tongue, but a pair of strong arms pulled me back from the woman. I struggled, trying to squirm from the grip, to kick the person, bite him, anything! No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to get out from my fleshy prison. I peeked behind myself to see that it was Zangetsu.

"Calm down, Koichi! This isn't like you, you need to calm down now!" Zangetsu demanded as I kept struggling.

As I was still struggling, I noticed Ichigo attack the woman I had been on top of just a minute ago. I cried out in desperation. Why wouldn't Zangetsu let me kill them?

Out of the blue, I heard the sound of running footsteps getting closer and closer. I began struggling more, knowing that the sound I was hearing was the sound of approaching security. At that moment, I realized that there was no way of escaping from Zangetsu, so I instead decided to warn Ichigo.

"Ichigo," I shouted, getting his blood splattered face to look up, "security is coming! Do something!"

Seemingly understanding what I was saying, he dashed over to the couch. With unbelievable strength that I had never seen before, he lifted the couch right off the floor. I halfway feared that he would throw it at us, but was relieved when he placed it next to the only door in the room.

"There," he said in that watery voice, "that should keep them a little longer."

He wiped his hands off on his pants, coming over to where Zangetsu and I stood. Easily, he pried off Zangetsu's arms from around my shoulders and kicked him down. The action had surprised me so much that I fell on top of Ichigo - the disease! He cracked up laughing, looking down at my still shocked face.

"So, now you're falling for me?" he joked.

"Shut up," I told him, "I am not falling for you, but why did you let me go? How did you have the strength to lift that couch?"

I vaguely observed that Zangetsu had hit his head on the bed behind me, knocking him unconscious. Good, I don't need him bothering me.

"I let you go because you're Ichigo's friend, and so you are important to him. I have the strength to pick up the couch because, when I'm in control of the body, Ichigo's body has the strength of two. I don't know how to explain it to you, just know that Ichigo and I are like two different people taking refuge in one body," he explained, giving me a genuine smile.

"Wait, I might be important to Ichigo, but why would that matter to you?" I probed interestedly.

"I live in the kid's head. If he's upset, how do you think I'd feel being rained on? Rain may be a blessing to some people, but I hate it," he clarified, sticking his tongue out in disgust.

"That makes sense, I suppose. Speaking of Ichigo, where is he? Is he okay?"

"Whoa, whoa, hold on! One question at a time," he chortled, "I'll answer your questions. Ichigo's up here, first of all."

He pointed at his head.

"Don't worry, he's just sleeping. Besides a headache that I'm getting instead, he's fine," the disease informed me.

"I guess you're not half bad," I commented.

"Eh?" he asked.

"I don't mind you being here too much. Just don't hurt anyone close to me, like that guy," I said, pointing at Zangetsu.

"Alright," he chuckled, "I'll humor you, but you're going to have to tell me who you don't want hurt. Otherwise, I'm not going to know, and there may be a little accident. Now then, what shall we do until security leaves us alone…?"

"I don't know," I replied, "find something to entertain yourself."

Having said that, I stood up and got onto the bed that had knocked out Zangetsu. Pulling back the covers, I got under and pulled my manga book out from under my pillow and began to read it. I had only read three pages of the book when I felt eyes upon me. I looked at the source from corner of my eye. The disease was looking at me. I made a doggy ear on the corner of the page and slammed the book down in front of his face.

"What the fuck do you want?" I shouted.

The disease smirked at me, pushing the book off the edge of the bed and getting on top of the covers. He straddled my hips, restraining my wrists with his knees and leaning down over me.

"I found something to entertain myself," he answered simply.

A cold sweat ran down my neck as I looked up at the leer on his face.

"And what would that be?" I whispered.

"You're such an interesting person," he whispered, ignoring my question, "I've never seen one quite like you…"

"W-what do you mean, like me?" I asked.

He again ignored me, running his fingers over my lips in amazement as he stared at the area on my face. I tried to pull away, but his other hand kept my face in the same spot.

"… so different from him…" he whispered so quietly that I nearly didn't hear him.

"Who? Who is him?" I asked, hoping he might pay attention this time.

All of a sudden, he snapped out of whatever daze he may have been in, throwing himself off of me.

"I didn't mean to do that," he said, dusting off his clothes as if they were dirty, "sorry about that. Him… well, I wasn't always just a disease, a parasite. I used to have a name, and a brother… Any way, it's not really that important! Security's gone now. I'll just go ahead and move the couch before I give you back Ichigo."

With the same scary strength he had wielded before, he picked up the couch and moved it back to it's spot at the back wall. After that, he seemed to fall unconscious on the couch, falling onto it. I cautiously picked my way over to his side, wondering if he really was back to normal. I sat down on the floor next to him, lifting his eye lid with my finger to check if it was back to golden brown. I was satisfied with what I found, silently thanking the disease. I was just staring at Ichigo in a stupor when he seemed to start waking up.

"Hey, Koichi…?" he asked.

"Mm… yeah…?" I said dazedly.

"What happened?" he wondered out loud.

"Oh! I'm sorry," I said, falling out of my daze, "the disease you were talking about took over for a while."

"D-did I kill anybody…?" he asked in a small, frightened voice.

"No," I lied, "I did."

I knew that what I said was obviously not the truth, but Ichigo didn't, and that was good enough for me. With how frightened he seemed, I didn't want to see how he would react if he found out that three of the dead bodies in the room were actually his doing. I would take all the blame, convince the higher ups that everything was my fault. Even if I got three days with no food in the silent room, or a lobotomy, it would be a thousand times better than seeing that expression on Ichigo. Anything but that.

"W-why would you do th-that?" he asked, aghast.

"To protect you," I replied, examining my fingernails, "why else would I?"

It hurt to lie to him, but only a bit. This was for him, so even if I hurt myself, it's better than hurting him.

"… Fine, but don't do it again," he said after a while.

"I don't know if I can keep that promise, but I'll try. You should go tell Unohana what you can remember about what happened. Just go up the hallway a bit until you get to the nurse's desk and tell them that it is urgent that you should speak to her… Tell them that I sent you; they'll understand. I'm friends with Unohana," I ordered him.

He nodded understandingly and walked out the door, closing it behind him. Once I couldn't hear Ichigo's footsteps anymore, I got up and locked the door before turning towards Zangetsu. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully at the moment, but I knew better. I stomped over to him and grabbed the front of his coat, jerking him back and forth until he 'woke up.' He pretended to yawn before speaking.

"What is it, dearest patient of mine?" he said, trying to hide his growing smile.

"Listen up!" I demanded, jerking him again, "I don't care what you saw, the dead bodies were all my doing! You got that?"

"Why would you want me to tell Yamamoto that _you_ killed them?" he asked simply, face in a flat expression.

"That doesn't matter! All that matters is that you're not telling him what actually happened, got it?" I re-demanded.

"Sure. I don't know what you're planning, but I'll go along with it for now. Just remember that the punishment will be much worse than it could have been if I told them the truth, and you know it," he warned.

"Whatever," I said, dropping him on the floor and getting back onto my bed.

"I'm going to Yamamoto now. If you're going to change your mind, now's your only chance," he warned again, his hand already on the doorknob.

"I already told you, didn't I? I'm taking all the blame, so get your ass out of here and tell him already!" I yelled, picking up my manga book and throwing it at his retreating figure.

He chuckled, dodging the flying book and opening the door.

"You're such a softie, you know that?" he said before walking out and closing the door.

"I'm not a fucking softie!" I screamed at the closed door, hoping he heard.

All I heard from Zangetsu after that was laughing before all was silent. When I was sure that he was definitely gone, I stepped off of my bed and walked over to the door. I made sure that the door was now unlocked for Ichigo, then picked up my manga book and sat in my bed.

"Damn! Reading a book doesn't seem so entertaining anymore…"

Currently, I was standing next to the nurse's counter. I had finally found the area, and nobody was there. I hoped that the five people who had been killed weren't the only people on shift here. I tapped my foot on the white linoleum floor, looking up at the white walls and white ceiling. This place was so monotone, was it really an insane asylum? I thought that insane asylums help you _not _be crazy. This only makes it worse!

After what felt like a few hours, I was rewarded for my patience when a small nurse walked up to me. He had hair that was the same length and color as Karin's, eyes that were so dark that they appeared to be black, and skin that seemed to never meet the daylight. He walked in a way that lacked confidence, his back hunched over.

"Gee, I'm so sorry… Were you waiting long? I'm Hanatarou, by the way," he said holding out his hand.

I only stared at the appendage, wondering what he was trying to get me to do with it. Was I supposed to slap it? Maybe there was some sort of trend that I didn't know about? Damn it, being home schooled most of my life does not help my socialization skills! After a while, Hanatarou chuckled nervously and pulled his hand back to his side.

"Never mind about that, then. Is there anything you need?" he said in a shaky voice.

"My roommate, Koichi, said that it is urgent that I see Unohana, if that's okay?" I explained.

"If it's true that Koichi sent you, then it is definitely okay! Just this way…" he trailed off.

I had a feeling that he wanted to know my name.

"Ichigo," I supplied.

"Ah, Ichigo. Unohana instructed me about you. In that case, follow me," he said, walking down a hallway to our left.

I followed behind him until he abruptly stopped, causing me to walk right into him. Then, I heard all the shouting and ruckus.

"Uh-oh, looks like our new friend, Grimmjow, got himself into some trouble," Sora said, popping up beside me.

I nearly jumped out of my skin, shouting in astonishment, as I hadn't expected him to do it.

"Sora, you have _got _to quit doing that…! And what do you mean, Grimmjow got himself in trouble…?" I whispered in a rush.

Hanatarou looked at me curiously before looking back ahead in dismay.

"Well this puts a damper on things… Gee, what will we do now…?" he said in a woe-is-me voice.

"It's probably the medicine. You know how that is, right? Koichi hated it, so it's not a stretch to believe Grimmjow hates it as well," Sora clarified.

"That makes sense, then… but shouldn't we help him out or something?" I worriedly asked.

"Nah, he's got it under control," Sora replied, pointing towards something I could not yet see, "look, he's already running this way."

I peered over Hanatarou's shoulder to see that Sora was indeed correct. Grimmjow had just escaped a big dog pile of nurses and was running… right… towards… us…? Oh, hell no!

"Hey, Ichigo, long time, no see!" Grimmjow shouted as I jump out of the way.

As he ran past, he shouted a quick, "Catch up with you later, okay?" over his shoulder back at me. I roll my eyes, pressing my back up against the wall as all ten of the nurses ran by. Well, that may explain the missing nurses. Hanatarou watched the nurses disappear around a corner nervously.

"Grimmjow seems a little more rowdy than usual, today," he said in an attempt to make small talk.

He started walking down the hallway again, motioning for me to follow. I carefully did so, making sure that I didn't see anymore nurses or people causing trouble.

"He's normally more well behaved?" I asked curiously.

"No," he replied abruptly, "he just doesn't normally misbehave this late in the day. It might have something to do with the fact that we have run out of pills and have been given orders to administer shots instead last week. We will, of course, get a new shipment of pills next week, but until then, we have to make do. It's just that I don't think Koichi and Grimmjow ever took their medicine in the first place."

"So, since they can't just hide the pills because of the lack of them, Grimmjow and Koichi are acting up…?" I asked in a confused voice.

"Precisely," Hanatarou said, stopping at a door at the end of the hall, "here's Unohana's office. Please knock before entering."

With that, Hanatarou walked off, disappearing around the corner that the nurses from earlier had run by. I examined a sign on the door curiously. It read, "There are no bad people, only misunderstood." I figured that this person was the type who gave everyone second, third, and fiftieth chances. After running a hand through my hair nervously, I tapped my knuckles against the door, producing a small knocking sound.

"Come in," said that same calm, womanly voice as the walkie-talkie had made before.

I cleared my throat and opened the door, preparing myself for the worst. I walked in, closing the door behind me. When I turned around, my eyes were greeted with a woman who's skin was pale, hair dark, and eyes soft. Her hair was long, braided around her neck, like a necklace, and upon her face was the kindest smile that I had ever seen. She reminded me of how sweet my mother was before she had died.

"You are Ichigo, am I right?" she asked sweetly.

"That is right, ma'am," I confirmed.

"Call me Unohana, dear. What is it that you seek me for?"

"Koichi told me to tell you about something that happened earlier…" I tried warily.

Unohana immediately became serious. She leaned forward, placing her elbows on the desk and her chin on the back of her hands.

"I'm all ears, dear," she said quietly.

"… Zangetsu had just told us about how Koichi had killed the previous subject number 15... Then, the disease-" I was cut off by Unohana's voice.

"The disease, my dear?" she asked.

"Oh! The disease is what I call the 'mental illness' I have been diagnosed with. He has a voice of his own and seems to have his own personality," I clarified.

"Hm, carry on, the disease did what…?"

"Well… he talked to me… and he said that he wanted to 'play' with Koichi. Then, I started to lose control. Koichi thinks that I was asleep, but I remember everything. All of it. I killed three people!" I said remorsefully, holding back the traitorous tears.

"Whoa, hold on now, start from the beginning," she said in that kind voice she had.

"I fell over and started to convulse on the floor when the disease and I were battling for control… and then, when he won, he tackled Koichi to the floor, telling him that he wanted a fight. When Koichi refused, he tried to strangle him," I explained, "it was horrible! He looked so torn, like part of him wanted to hurt me and the other wanted to beat that part down. He was falling unconscious when he kicked the disease off and five nurses came running in. The disease knew about a knife that had been under Koichi's pillow. He took the knife out and attacked one of the nurses.

"I'm not sure why, but after the disease merely moved, Koichi suddenly snapped and attacked another one of the nurses…"

I stopped, trailing off as my voice had cracked on the last word. I looked up at her pleadingly, the tears leaking over the dam I had built. She noticed my predicament and leaned forward, rubbing my back soothingly.

"It's okay, if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to," she whispered.

"No! I have to tell you! It's important that I do," I said, nudging away her hand, "but what he did just seemed so brutal. Koichi jumped onto his back-"

"Who's back, dear?"

"The nurse's back! Then, Koichi had shoved his finger's into the nurse's eye sockets and bit him. All the blood and gore… and then, he… then, he…." I trailed off, hiccupping lightly and taking a deep breath, "then, he kicked the man down and broke his neck with his foot! And he had punched that other man and killed him! And… then…. And then, all that I was doing… no, the disease… he was stabbing the woman and hurting all those people… Zangetsu held back Koichi before he could hurt the other woman, though…

"When the disease noticed he wasn't hurting her, he had attacked her, too! Her blood was all over me," I then noticed that I was still caked in that very blood, "and it still is! I… I…"

My eyes had turned into small openings for waterfalls, thick lines forming in the caked and dry blood on my cheeks. The tinged pink tears fell on the desk I was leaning over, making small pink pools of salty water. Unohana patted my back caringly.

"It's okay, dear, you've said enough," she reassured me.

"No!" I shouted, "There is one more thing! Koichi lied, he said that he killed them all for me, and he's going to tell them all… He's going to take all the blame for what I did, I'm sure of it! He's going to tell Ya…. Yama…."

"Yamamoto?" she demanded urgently, "Is it Yamamoto that he's going to tell?"

I nodded my head vigorously, recognizing the name. Her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as she stared at me. Abruptly, she slammed her hands down on the desk - causing my to jump - and stood up, pushing her computer chair back. She grabbed my hand, tugging me towards the door.

"We have to go to the main office! Now!" she said, raising her voice insistently.

I understood her urgency, as I had the same feeling. My mother hadn't talked to me recently, but now she was screaming. Screaming that I was failing another one. Together, Unohana and I ran down the hallway, passing the nurse's desk where Hanatarou was seated without a second glance.

Soon, we had made our way past all of the room doors and out the front exit onto the sidewalk. Unohana tugged on my hand again, pulling me down the sidewalk to the building I had been brought to before, when I had started bleeding profusely. She opened the door and ran over to a door that had a sensor beside it. She placed her hand against the sensor, then pressed the red button below it.

"Unohana?" asked a woman's voice, "What is it that you need?"

"I need to see Yamamoto! It is of utmost importance that I see him immediately!" she shouted into the small microphone.

"Okay, we'll unlock the doors for you," the voice replied.

There was a metallic click, then Unohana opened the door and dragged me in. I was towed down a short hallway before Unohana opened a big, heavy looking white door. With much effort, I closed the door behind us once we walked in. I looked up at the face of an old, frail looking man sitting in a computer desk much like Unohana's. He had an X-shaped scar on his bald head and a long beard that had criss-crossed ribbons tied around it. A small cane was at his side, and his eyes were closed, as if he were sleeping.

"What is it, Unohana?" he seemed to demand rather than ask.

"Have you already heard about the occurrence with subject number 13?" she asked worriedly.

"Yes, his punishment has been decided already," he said, eying her as if trying to discover her goal.

"What punishment was decided for him?" she pleaded.

"Lobotomy," he replied gravely, "if there is something you have to say, it will have to wait."

"But, sir! You don't understand! He hardly deserves that harsh of a punishment! At least lower it to three days in the silent room," she said.

"What proof do you have that his punishment should be lowered at all?"

That is how we got into my rushed explanation of the earlier happenings. Once I had told him everything I knew, he, too, had become surprised. His eyes widened at what I assumed was the realization of his grave mistake. Pulling out his walkie-talkie, he pushed a small button.

"You must cease the lobotomy! Immediately!" he said into the speaker.

"But sir, we have already started the surgery!" said a male's voice, "We can't just stop when his skull has already been cut open!"

"Kurotsuchi, you would do well to respect your higher ups," he replied in a voice that stipulated utmost respect, "sew him up and give him the best pain killers you have. When he's awake send him straight to my office. There will be no tolerance for disobeying my orders. If I find you have hurt him anymore than you have, mark my words, you will lose much more than your job."

He then turned off his walkie-talkie, looking up at us.

"Care to wait here until your friend is awake?" he asked me directly, and Unohana indirectly.

We both nodded, taking a seat to the side. Yamamoto returned to his paperwork after a few minutes, which left me very bored. I tried everything I could to entertain myself. I counted the speckles on the floor (there was a _lot _more than 500), hummed a bit, and even attempted to twiddle my thumbs. Eventually, Unohana grew tired of watching me mess around and asked Yamamoto if he had any board games.

Yamamoto pointed at a door, that I assumed belonged to a closet, without even looking away from his paperwork. He must get that question a lot or something. Unohana got up and walked over to the door, opening it. The door was very squeaky, making a high pitched squeal as it opened. She looked up and down before leaning in and pulling out a game.

I squinted at the box, deciphering what it said. The box read 'Sorry.' It wasn't my favorite game, but it was better than nothing. She closed the door and brought the box over beside me, sitting with her legs crossed on the floor. I got down on the floor with Unohana, helping her open the box and get the pieces. I picked red, she picked blue.

Eventually, we had played the game a total of 56 times, with me winning 16 times, Unohana winning 40 times. It baffled me how she had won so many times! I didn't like playing this game so much, but I hardly ever lost to anybody, and especially not this many times. She smirked up at me.

"Want to go another round?" she challenged.

Just then, the door slowly opened. In fact, the door was opened so slowly that I had barely heard it. My heart skipped a beat when I looked up to see Koichi standing in the doorway. I smiled up at him, tears brimming in my eyes. He didn't smile back, though, and my show of happiness soon disappeared at this.

Without a word, he sat down in one of the seats that Unohana and I had previously been sitting in. Yamamoto put a final dot on his paperwork, then looked up at all of us.

"Mr. Shirosaki, why did you lie to us?" Yamamoto asked, being the first to break the silence.

Koichi didn't reply, which worried me. What had they done to him? Is he still himself? Putting my red pieces into the box, I got up and sat down in the seat beside Koichi, looking over at him in worry. Unohana put away the game, then came over to where we were sitting, standing beside us. Seeing that he probably wasn't going to respond in any way, I looked up at Yamamoto.

"Sir, I did tell you that he thought I was sleeping. He probably thought that he was protecting me by lying. Are you sure that he is okay…?" I looked back at him, seeing his face had stayed the same.

In a swift and unexpected movement, Koichi stood from his seat, as if to attack someone like before. Comprehension of the situation hit me with full force as Koichi started to step forward. Bracing myself, I hurled my body from my seat, tackling Koichi to the ground.

"What's going on?" I ground through my teeth as I held him down.

Unohana scampered over to my side, helping me hold down Koichi's struggling form. Koichi growled at us, as if he were some sort of beast, trying to claw at our flesh. I grabbed one of his arms, Unohana catching my drift and holding down the other. Not knowing what else we could do, we both sat on his back to keep him from moving. He finally stopped, panting in exhaustion.

"It seems that Kurotsuchi has drugged him. That is the only thing that would cause him to act so strangely, short of surgery on his brain," she explained, wiping her brow with her shoulder.

"If that is the case, then we can only wait out his drugged state. In the meantime, I will send the special ops force after Kurotsuchi," Yamamoto said, pulling out his walkie-talkie, "you two, take number 13 to one of the vacant rooms in the hallway."

He said this, then dismissed us with a wave of his free hand. Unohana nodded in acknowledgement before nudging my shoulder. Getting the hint, I helped her pull Koichi up off the floor. He began struggling and growling at us again, but we had him under control. With a bit of team work and a lot of effort, we got him out of the room, and closed the door behind us.

There was a short click behind us; Yamamoto had locked the door. We were halfway down the hallway when Koichi stopped struggling altogether. Thinking that he had fallen asleep or something of the sort, we loosened our grip on his body. The move we made was a bad one, because as soon as our grip had loosened, Koichi jerked out of it. Jumping away, he then kicked me down to the ground. Unohana shouted out in surprise, falling back into a wall.

"Cover your neck, damn it!" the disease shouted, causing me to remember when Koichi had stomped on that nurse's neck.

I held both my arms crossed over my neck just as Koichi stomped down on that area. Angered by the fact that he couldn't kill me, the tranced Koichi stomped down on my stomach, instead. I coughed from the pain of the action he had made, holding my stomach in agony. He stomped on the spot again, not caring whether my hands were in the way anymore.

"Fuck, you're useless!" the disease reprimanded, attempting to wrench control right out of my grasp.

My vision became red much more rapidly than it had the last time as the searing headache that accompanied it arrived. I weakly fought the switch of control, but wasn't as strong at the moment. Within seconds, my body was sent into violent convulsions. My head hit the speckled floor several times, producing a sickening crack with each time it happened. Koichi stopped stomping at me to just stare at the change occurring.

Saliva leaked over my lips as my eyes rolled back into my head. This was so much more painful than last time. Was I experiencing what was known as a seizure, just like people with epilepsy? With another minute's worth of convulsions, control was completely wrenched from my frail grasp. Any actions I would now make would not be decided by me.

I was thrown into a world that was now familiar to me. It was made up of sideways business buildings, clouds drifting what seemed like down, but was really right in comparison of the buildings. This is where I was the last time that the disease had seized control from me. I ignored my surroundings, darting to the top of the building that I was on and opening the window. I looked inside the window. Seeing that what was going on was inside this window, I dropped inside of it.

A strange feeling washed over me, like I was falling, and then I was in my body beside the disease. Though I _was _inside my body, experiencing all that I normally would, I had a distinct feeling of hopelessness. I had no control over my body, it was all the disease. Right now, we were still on the floor, where I was before, but sitting up. We were looking up at the blank face of a drugged Koichi.

"Got yourself in quite a mess, didn't you?" the disease asked dryly without a response, "That's okay, you don't have to say anything. I pretty much know what happened already. Gee, when I told you that King was asleep, I didn't expect you to go lying for his safety or anything. You really are a softie, aren't you?"

Koichi was still as stoic as before, but the disease and I were both laughing, granted I was laughing against my will. Koichi didn't do anything, didn't laugh or get angry. Nothing. The disease ceased the laughter, looking at him seriously.

"Even under a drugged state, I didn't expect you to hurt King, after what you did before," the disease said, "but it seems that I was wrong about you."

With that, we had lunged at him, wrapping our fingers around his neck. From the corner of our eye, I saw Unohana gasping in shock, as if she wanted to do something about what was happening and couldn't.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" the disease shouted, and I partially joined in, "Snap the hell out of it!"

With that, we punched him in the jaw, his head snapping back into the floor before bouncing and hitting the floor again. The disease had a small smirk on his face at this, but I was not pleased. I abandoned my conflicting emotions when I noticed something flicker in Koichi's eyes. As swiftly as the emotion had arrived in his soulless eyes, it had vanished away.

Koichi went back to the emotionless, drugged state he had been put in. He began to pry at the hand we had firmly wrapped around his neck, trying to get free. Though our grip was firm, it was not restricting him of his breathing, and so we left it as it was.

"Come on! You had something there just a second ago! We know we saw it! Are we going to have to beat the emotion back into you?" we shouted, punching him again.

Koichi gasped in 'shock' before kicking us off of him. We were thrown on our back next to Unohana, whom was frozen in what may have been bewilderment.

"Yo, Unohana," the disease said, snapping her out of her frozen condition, "go find someone called Grimmjow for me. Tell him that Ichigo needs help with Koichi, and bring him back quickly!"

Unohana gulped and nodded, standing up. She ran past Koichi, who made a lunge at her. We grabbed his waist and shoved him down to the floor again, allowing Unohana to escape. Unohana slammed the door shut behind her, leaving Koichi and I alone in the abandoned hallway. Koichi tried to struggle out of our grasp in any way he could before he finally leaned down a little and bit into our hand.

We yanked our hand out of his mouth, jumping back in surprise rather than pain. Nursing our bruised hand, we stared at Koichi skeptically.

"You bit us," we ground through our teeth.

Again, Koichi flashed a small amount of emotion by smirking devilishly before subsequently he was once again stoic. We growled in frustration at this, springing to our feet. We glared down at the unchanging face of Koichi, whom was still on the floor.

"What the hell is with you? Show some emotion, will you?" we both shouted as the disease stomped down on his stomach, hard.

He coughed, like I had when he stomped on me, curling in towards our foot. We put more of our weight down on his stomach, making him start to wheeze for breath. Though he was wheezing, he still didn't show any emotion whatsoever. It pissed us off, making us bend over him, grabbing him by the shirt. With our foot still firmly placed on his stomach, we pulled his upper half towards our face.

"I'm going to beat you 'til next week if you don't snap out of it right now! Do it for Ichigo, damn it!" the disease shouted, shocking me only a little.

The emotion washed over his eyes again. This time, we saw what emotions were there. Fear, desperation, hopelessness… there were probably more than that. They all stayed there for about three seconds before being chased away. What did he fear? The disease? Or maybe he was scared of hurting me? Us? He didn't have to worry about us, though.

We threw him into the wall, face first, the squelch-like sound not right to my ears. The disease, realizing the slight miscalculation of how much Koichi could take, flipped his now motionless body over. I wanted to cry out in anxiety, and the disease may have as well, when we saw the damage we had done. The stitches were coming apart!

What do we do…? What do we do? What do we do, what do we do? We screamed out in desperation, slamming our fists down on either side of Koichi's body. Just then, Unohana came back through the door, Grimmjow and Ulquiorra hot on her heels. Tears started to stream down our face as we gritted our teeth. We felt a hand on our shoulder and slapped it away.

"Ichigo, what happened?" Unohana gasped in horror.

We merely looked up at her, our eyes swollen from crying already (they would be bloodshot, but the sclera is black). Ulquiorra tried to pull Koichi from our grasp, but we didn't want to lose him, tugging his body away. We growled at him aggressively, baring our teeth.

"Ichigo," Ulquiorra said in a monotone, "we can't do anything about it if you won't even let us see what is wrong with him."

Reluctantly, after a few minutes of trying and stopping, we finally gently laid his body down on the cold, unforgiving floor. Grimmjow was the first to gasp in shock, Ulquiorra the second (and much more quiet) by just a smidgen.

"Ichigo, how did this happen?" Ulquiorra said, keeping his cool.

"We… threw him into the wall…" we said, pointing at the tell-tale bloodstain on the bleach white wall.

"Ichigo! Why would you do that?" he said, raising his voice only a little.

"It wasn't Ichigo, it was me!" the disease shouted at him.

Everyone in the room seemed baffled by this, seeing as we talk through the same mouth and body. We were stared at strangely by every person in the room, as if we had just grown a third leg. Which we hadn't, although our eyes _were_ a different color.

"What?" he growled, "Oh, _come on! _I _know _that Ichigo told you about 'the disease' already, so why are you all so confused? You act as if Ichigo were insane or something…"

The disease giggled at his stupid joke, but the joy faded as soon as it came, both of us checking Koichi again. He was still breathing, but he was also bleeding heavily. His lips had started to become blue, which, after being with a doctor all of our lives, we knew was _not _a good sign. That may be normal for us, but it most definitely was not for him. We tried to halt the bleeding by putting pressure with both our hands, but, if anything, it only made the bleeding worse. We whined in desperation, grabbing his hand and squeezing it, more for comfort to ourselves than Koichi.

"In case you didn't notice, Ichigo, or disease… whichever you prefer, I am a doctor. Help me get him over to the emergency room just up the hall out that door. I can fix him up easily," Unohana said comfortingly.

Grimmjow and Ulquiorra tried to help, but we swatted their hands away, as we did not want help at the moment. With one fluid movement, we scooped Koichi up bridal style, resting his head on our shoulder. Everyone was staring at us, this time in mild shock. Again, the disease had expressed just how easy it was for him to do things that others would have felt difficulty in.

"Lead the way," the disease told Unohana calmly.

Knowing that there was a chance of saving Koichi must have cooled him off a bit, since he was now so composed. As he was so calm, it caused me to compose myself as well. When I was sure that I was thinking clearly, I added myself to him, helping him carry Koichi.

Unohana, seeing our expression had lost it's disastrous aura, led us towards the door. She opened and held the door for us to walk out of, Grimmjow and Ulquiorra coming as well. We all walked down the hallway until we got to a set of double doors that had a sign above them reading 'ER.' We made our way through the door; we walked until we came upon a vacant room.

Upon entering the room, Unohana ordered us to place Koichi on the bed. We did so, Unohana beginning usual hospital procedures. She checked his blood pressure, temperature, and breathing before sticking his arm with an IV. We became mildly surprised when we noticed that Ulquiorra was helping her out, as if he knew about this field of knowledge.

Ulquiorra connected the IV to a tube going to IV fluid, hanging the bag on the portable shelf on wheels. Grimmjow grabbed the portable shelf on wheels, prepared to push it with us. Unohana, whom had previously left the room, came back in with fresh blankets. She spread the blankets on top of Koichi to keep him warm. Once all procedures had been completed, Unohana ordered us to push the bed and follow her to the operating room

We quickly made our way down the freezing hallway until we came upon another set of double doors. Unohana held the door open for us and we got Koichi into the room without any other problems. She walked over to a cupboard in the room, searching through it. We stood idly next to Koichi until she came back over to us, handing out masks, caps, and gloves. We all put on the items we were given, Unohana already in her garb.

Peering down at the gaping crack in his skull with a thoughtful expression, she turned on her heel and grabbed a syringe that contained clear liquid. We looked at it curiously, wondering what it was.

"It's anesthesia," Ulquiorra explained for her, "it will keep him unconscious while we operate and stitch him up."

I nodded silently, watching as it was injected into his IV. Getting out a cotton swab, Unohana dipped it in anesthetic before cleaning out the crack in Koichi's skull and the area around it. Once the blood was gone, I was even more unsettled. The blood had made it look better than it was.

It took a few hours to completely fix up Koichi's skull, but with much anxiety and effort, it was done. Unohana wiped the sweat from her brow after cutting the thread and throwing away the excess items.

"Now, all we have to worry about is blood transfusion. The only problem is that Koichi has type AB negative, and we are out of all our stored blood-" she tried to explain.

"Wait, did you say AB negative? We have that blood type! Try us!" we shouted, me being the one shouting more.

"Yes, but we'd have to test the blood and make sure that there is nothing bad inside of it and-" she explained urgently, but was cut off by Grimmjow.

"Then, what are you waiting for? Draw his blood and scan it already!" he shouted.

"Right away!" she said, producing an IV connected by a tube to a small cup from the cupboard.

We sat on the edge of Koichi's operating bed, holding our arm out to be stuck with the needle. Unohana kneeled on the floor, wiping our arm with an anesthetic wipe before sticking the long needle into our vein. We bit our tongue to mellow the pain in our arm as the needle was pushed all the way in.

Once the IV was situated, Unohana stuck some transparent hospital tape over the IV to keep it from ripping out. We watched as our blood flowed freely down the tube, into the cup, mesmerized by how dark it looked when it was all so close together. Once the cup was nearly full, Unohana pulled a green clip from her pocket, fastening it onto the tube near the IV.

Unohana unscrewed the cup from the tube, placing a cap on it and walking towards the exit. She turned towards Ulquiorra and whispered something to him before rushing out the door. Ulquiorra immediately walked out the same door she had just walked through, shortly thereafter coming back. He handed us some peanut butter crackers and a plastic cup filled with orange juice.

Taking the nourishment we were handed, we thoughtfully munched on the crackers, next, finishing off the orange juice. By then, Unohana had walked back into the room, carrying a bag in with her.

"I found nothing wrong with your blood, and so it is okay to perform a transfusion. Normally, we would have to carry out proper procedures, but seeing as Koichi isn't in the best of conditions, we will do this as quickly as possible," she informed, us.

Walking over to us, she unfastened the small clip from the tube after twisting the tube into place on the bag. After a momentary wait, the bag was full, allowing Unohana to refasten the clip to the tube and unscrew the bag. With that, she hung the bag on the portable shelf on wheels, screwing Koichi's IV to it. We instantly saw some color coming back to his face, though he didn't have much to begin with.

Unohana warned us that something could still go wrong, and just to wait and see what happens. She ordered us to wheel Koichi back to the vacant room we had used before, so that we were not occupying the operating room. Obediently, we followed her orders. As soon as we got him back to his room, we were happy to see a small sofa against the wall next to Koichi's bed. Gratefully, we sat in it, Grimmjow and Ulquiorra doing the same.

Knowing that Koichi would not wake up for some time, we decided to make some small talk with the two. We turned to Ulquiorra, whom was right next to us.

"We noticed that you seemed to have a good idea about what you were doing back there. Have you done something like that before or…?" we asked, bringing up the previous happenings.

"In a way, I am Unohana's apprentice. She has trained me in a lot of the basics, so I do know a bit about what I'm doing," he replied.

Was it just us, or did Ulquiorra sound just a little bit proud of himself?

"It must be nice…. To have a purpose, I mean…" the disease said quietly.

"You kind of do have a purpose, I think. You are supposed to protect your host, Ichigo, and you do a great job at it," Ulquiorra encouraged him.

Though surprised he was, the disease did not hide his appreciative smile that nearly split our face open.

"Thanks! You have no idea how much that means to me. To both of us," the disease told him, "I am no longer needed at the moment, though. I'll give you back Ichigo in just a minute. Before I do that, though, I have to warn you both about something."

Both Ulquiorra and Grimmjow looked at us in solemnity.

"Unohana said that there were no problems with our blood, but that may not be so. Because of me, Ichigo has a problem with his blood, that you know about from before. He produces way too much of it, causing him to bleed often from any openings in his body. Do not become too alarmed if Ichigo isn't the only one with that condition tomorrow," he warned dangerously before relinquishing control to me.

I suddenly felt as if I was falling, then I could control my limbs again.

"Hey guys! How's it going?" I asked cheerfully.

They both looked at me gravely.

"Do you already know what is going on, or do we have to brief you?" Ulquiorra asked in his usual monotone.

"No, I don't need to be reminded that I cracked open my friend's skull," I replied, looking longingly over at Koichi's serene face.

Ulquiorra rubbed my back, telling me that it wasn't my fault, which caused me to break down crying again. I fell over onto his lap, crying into his leg.

"I completely lost control! I stomped on him and strangled him! I even threw him into a wall like that!" I shouted into his lap, squeezing his leg as I did.

"Sh, sh, you didn't know," Ulquiorra reminded me, "you didn't know what you were doing. It was the disease that did that."

I looked up at him with bloodshot eyes, a scowl set on my face.

"I _did _know what I was doing! I _helped _him do that!" I said in a more hushed voice.

"So what if you did?" Grimmjow comforted me, "You just got caught up in the moment and forgot about his stitches. It's nothing serious, and he's still alive. Just suck it up and move on, okay?"

Grimmjow rubbed his hand in my hair in what I assumed was a comforting gesture. Slowly, I quit hyperventilating and stopped my violent shaking. Eventually, I was only sniffling and trembling a little, my face heated from the blood in it. I hoped that I wouldn't start bleeding now.

From the corner of my eye, I saw movement. Getting off of Ulquiorra's lap, I walked over to the bed, and Ulquiorra followed. After a few seconds, Grimmjow got up and followed as well. We all watched as Koichi shifted around; he rubbed his closed eyes before finally opened one of them. Soon, the other eye was open as well and he was looking up at all of us.

"I feel like I just got hit by an eighteen wheeler," he commented, laughing.

I was so overwhelmed with happiness that Koichi was showing emotion, I hugged him tight in my arms.

"Whoa, whoa, let go, let go! Are you trying to strangle me again?" he said humorously, patting my back.

I pulled away from him and pointed a finger at his face, causing his eyes to cross.

"Don't ever worry me like that again!" I demanded, wagging the finger.

He nodded slowly and I hugged him again.

"Oh, I'm so happy! I thought I had killed you, what would I do if I lost you, or if you died, or left, I was so scared, what would I do without you?" I said in a flash.

"Hush, I'm not that important. I was more worried about you. Come to think of it, what happened while I was out?" he replied.

"We had to stitch you up and give you a blood transfusion, but there wasn't any blood in storage," Ulquiorra said, Koichi looking at him strangely, "so Ichigo offered to donate."

Koichi was now staring at me in amazement.

"You would do that for me…?" he asked in astonishment.

"Both the disease and I would do it a hundred times over. You are one of the closest friends that I have ever had. There is no other reason for me to do so. Besides, it isn't as good as you think it is. You might have inherited the same problem that I have, now that you have my blood in your veins," I informed him.

"And that problem is…?" he asked skeptically.

"I have a problem that causes me to produce enough blood for two bodies," everyone looked at me in astonishment, "so to get rid of the excess blood, I bleed out of every possible opening in my body. That is the problem you may have inherited."

"It doesn't matter," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"Having the same problem," he told me, "it doesn't matter to me. That just means that I'll know just a fraction of your pain."

I was so deeply affected by what Koichi had said, that I almost started to cry again, but I managed to stop myself. (No more was I going to cry!) I hugged him once more, for good measure, before standing back up.

"Well then, if you are feeling better, are you ready to go?" I queried.

"I suppose," he said in a bored sounding tone, "there's nothing much to do here, any way."

"In that case, I will have to remove both your and Koichi's IV," Ulquiorra informed us, snapping his fingers.

As if he were trained, Grimmjow got two cotton balls and band-aids from the cupboard, then walked back to Ulquiorra's side. Ulquiorra took one cotton ball and one band-aid, walking over to me first. He removed the tape, then placed it over the needle, then he told me to press down on it. I did as I was told. I watched as Ulquiorra swiftly pulled out the IV, removed my hand, and taped the band-aid over the cotton ball.

Turning away from me and getting the other cotton ball and band-aid from Grimmjow, Ulquiorra then walked over to Koichi. He first unhooked the IV fluid before giving Koichi the same treatment that he had given me. After Ulquiorra had escorted us out of the main building, we walked back to our building and into our room. Ah, home, sweet home.

Koichi held the door open for me, allowing me to walk in, then closed the door behind him. He turned around and stopped in his tracks.

"Hey! It's my knife!" he cheered, bending over and picking it up off the floor.

I faintly remembered that I _had _dropped it on the way out the door to Unohana. The fact that he hadn't noticed it up until now baffled me to no end. I shook my head at his possible stupidity. I sat on the bed that I assumed was mine (seeing as it wasn't a complete mess). Laying back in my bed, I decided that I should pay the disease a little visit. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on a place that I had dubbed my 'inner world.'

I felt a light feeling, like I was falling with wind rushing past my face. When the feeling was gone, I opened my eyes to see the sideways blue business buildings and clouds from before. Hearing a giggle from behind, I turned to see the disease himself.

"So, finally figured out how to come visit, eh?" he joked in good humor.

"I had to come ask you a few things," I simply replied.

"Oh?"

"Well, firstly, you were mean to me in the beginning. You said horrible things, told me to do things that I shouldn't, but now you aren't. Now you're being nice, and not just to me, but to others around me."

"Che, shows what you know, doesn't it? I was never 'mean' to you, per se, rather I didn't know how to deal with socialization. Kind of like you and shaking hands," he laughed.

"Eh? I don't get it, what is shaking hands? What is it supposed to mean?" I asked, perplexed.

"Here," he said, holding his hand out, "grab it."

I hesitantly did as he told me. I mean - come on! He has claws and everything!

"Okay, then you move your hand up and down while holding mine. Like this," he said, demonstrating for me, "then, you're shaking hands. It's like saying hello, congratulating each other, sealing a deal, or making a truce. Such as at a football game. After the game, all the players shake hands and say 'good game.'"

"Ah, I get it," I said, shaking his hand before taking my hand back.

"Any way, I didn't mean any harm before," he said again, "I just wasn't used to socializing for a while. I'm better, now. Was there anything else you needed?"

"Yeah. You said that Koichi might develop the same problem as us. Did you mean it?"

"I mean everything that I say to some degree. I am not certain, but I _am _ninety-nine percent sure that Koichi is going to be bleeding. If that is the case, you may want to get towels. No, better yet, get some buckets. Go ask him right now, and while you're at it, ask him to handshake. It'll freak him out," he said, winking at me, before tapping my nose.

I felt that same sensation as before, and then I was back in my bed. I instantly jumped up from the bed, scaring the crap out of Koichi.

"Hey, Koichi!" I cheered, "Let's handshake!"

"Why?" he asked uninterestedly.

"Because, I just learned how to do it a couple minutes ago!" I replied, sticking my hand in his face.

He only stared at it, but eventually, he slowly reached his hand up and shook it.

"And you learned how to handshake from…?" he asked, ignoring the fact I had ever not known how to handshake.

"From the disease… Oh, by the way, he says that we might want to get some buckets before going to bed," I informed.

"Why the hell do we need buckets?"

"You'll see tomorrow!" I sang.

He slapped me upside the head before stepping over to the door.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm getting buckets. Aren't you the one who said we needed them? Come on!" he said, opening the door.

Smiling, I merrily skipped out the door, Koichi hot on my heels. The walk to the nurse's counter was fairly quiet for the most part. Neither Koichi, nor I had anything to say to each other. When the counter came into view, Koichi walked over to the nurse on duty. I recognized him as Hanatarou.

"We need two buckets. We'll give them back tomorrow," Koichi told Hanatarou.

Hanatarou nodded in his usual nervous manner before getting up out of his seat. Walking to a cupboard behind him, he searched through it before pulling out two small red buckets. In fact, they didn't even look like buckets, they looked like small bowls.

"Um, Hanatarou, those aren't nearly big enough," I told him, "they need to be two feet deep _at the least_."

He simply nodded before putting the bowls away and getting the buckets I asked for from a larger cupboard near the floor. He handed one bucket to each of us and we were on our way back to our shared room. When we were back inside the room, Koichi threw his bucket onto the couch before crawling into bed.

"Hitting the sack?" I asked him, tilting my head.

"Yeah, aren't you?" he replied, pulling the covers over his head as he turned his back away from me.

"I suppose so," I stated before getting in my bed, "night, Koichi."

"Night, Ichigo," he mumbled, yawning.

I soon felt my eyelids grow heavy, happy to finally be asleep.

When I woke up, I knew immediately that I was going to bleed as soon as I sat up. Reaching for the bucket I had strategically placed by my bedside before getting in bed, I sat up with my legs crossed. The blood already began to drip from my eyes and nose slowly, as if I were crying tears of blood. Before my bleeding became heavier, I heard the rustle of sheets and blankets to my side.

I turned my head, careful to keep it over the bucket, and saw Koichi starting to awaken. He yawned and rubbed one of his eyes before sitting up from his bed. I knew it was most likely a bad move for him, seeing as blood already had started leaking from his eyes and nose in a mirror of sorts to me.

"Go grab the bucket off the couch!" I ordered him, blood dripping over top of my lip and down my chin.

He tilted his head at me in confusion before a drop of blood fell onto the back of his hand. He looked down and his eyes widened in surprise. His hands shot up to his face, smearing the blood that was already leaking. He fell out of the bed before stumbling to his feet and grabbing his bucket off the couch. Claiming the bucket, he ran over to my side, sitting on the bed and copying my actions of crossing his legs and placing the bucket in between.

"Not very smart, are you?" I chastised, "I thought you'd figure out why the buckets were needed on your own…"

Koichi pouted up at me, which looked pretty goofy with blood smeared here and there. It just didn't have the same affect, since it looked kind of like he'd gotten into a woman's makeup kit and smeared scarlet lipstick all over his face. I laughed at the way his face looked. The oxygen from my laughing got caught in some blood in my mouth, forming a bubble and popping in my face. I froze in shock, Koichi freezing as well. A moment later, he started laughing hysterically. I was soon laughing with him, both of us having blood flow down our faces like scarlet waterfalls.

We hadn't been laughing long when the door burst open to reveal a skinny, black clad figure, A.K.A. Zangetsu.

"Okay, guys, it's breakfast time- Oh! Okay, then," Zangetsu exclaimed, seeing the blood and leaving.

As the blood had begun to staunch, I wiped my face off with the blanket and got up off the bed. Koichi snorted, but did the same. Some blood still dribbled on both of our faces, but we deemed it unnecessary to wait any longer. We had agreed that the both of us were positively starving.

Koichi led me through the halls, taking turns here and there, until we were in a rather large cafeteria. As we entered the room, I noticed that there were many other doors upon the walls in the circular room. Each of these doors had a number on it, and when I turned to look at the door we had come from, I saw a number three. The cafeteria must have tied in with all of the other buildings as well.

I followed Koichi to a long line of people. The line was waiting for poached eggs, which sounded nice. I had eaten poached eggs only once, so I didn't know how good they would be in the end. Apparently, Koichi thought that they were awesome. Once we had grabbed a small bottle of chocolate milk for each of us, and a tray of food, we walked on out to an empty table.

The table Koichi had picked for us had absolutely no one sitting at it. The table seemed to be the only one that was empty, which made me wonder what the corresponding reason to this was. I didn't put much thought to it, figuring that Koichi had probably scared all others out of sitting at this table at all. We had only been eating for a few minutes when a loud voice shouted out at us.

"Yo, berry twins!" Grimmjow greeted, sitting down on my right side.

Ulquiorra quietly sat next to him, nodding my way before laying his head down on the table. He seemed kind of tired, which I assumed somehow had something to do with Grimmjow. I rolled my eyes at Grimmjow's name-calling, while Koichi started a yelling match with him. Deciding that I had now lost my appetite, I picked up my Styrofoam tray and walked off towards the area where the line used to be. There was a trashcan against the wall, in which I dropped my tray, along with the half eaten breakfast.

As I began to turn around to head back to my seat, a fist slammed into the wall right in front of my face. My eyes widened, and I jumped back a foot or two from the offending appendage. I had to look up quite a lot to see the long, scarred face of a very gruesome looking man. His eyes pierced my own, his hair back in spikes with bells on the end. I knew immediately that this guy was definitely not the type to fight one on one with. He smirked down at me, cracking his knuckles against his hand.

"Newbie, huh? Been a while since we got one of those…" he said, cracking the knuckles on his other hand.

"Um, sorry, I don't want any trouble," I replied, holding my hands up and backing up into a wall.

I was now stuck between a brick wall and a man that looked to be at least seven feet tall. I looked to my left, then to my right, only to see nowhere to go. On my left was another wall, on my right was a slowly growing crowd of asylum patients. Where the hell were the lunch monitors when you needed them?

"_Do you have to constantly be in trouble?" _asked the agitated voice of the disease, _"I mean, seriously, one minute, you're throwing away some trash, and the next… Ah, forget it, you think you can handle this on your own?"_

"I don't know," I mumbled, hoping nobody could here me, "look how big he is, there's no way I could fend him off. There isn't anywhere to run, either, so my only option is to fight. He looks too strong to me, but I'll try."

The disease scoffed at my reply, grumbling about how he could have handled it in five minutes, tops.

"Drama queen," I said, holding my fists up.

The guy tilted his head slightly to the side in confusion before returning to his previous cocky position. He held up his fists, swinging one at me. I dodged quickly, barely missing a blow to the temple.

"_Wimpy King," _the disease replied half-heartedly, _"try not to get killed, okay? Don't fight more than you have to!"_

"Fine, I'll ask for help if I need it, damn," I smirked, throwing an uppercut straight into the man's jaw.

I heard a few people whispering harshly back and forth as I had actually dealt damage on my opponent. One of the whisperers saying, "Did you see that? He just hit _the _Zaraki Kenpachi!"

"So, you're name is Zaraki, eh?" I asked cockily, lifting my leg and kicking his side.

"That's my name!" he shouted, punching at my head, but missing, "Don't you wear it out!"

With that, Zaraki kicked me right in the gut, sending me hurdling backwards into the wall. My head crashed against the bricks, allowing me to hear my own skull crack. Stars were strewn across my vision, blinding me as my head felt hot. I crossed my wrists over my face, but couldn't see what I was guarding from. A foot crashed into my gut yet again. I gasped and coughed in pain, curling in on the foot. I grasped at the ankle I could not see, trying to yank it off of my stomach.

"_What happened to asking for help, stupid?" _the disease scoffed, irritated.

"Sorry, I need you're help!" I gasped, removing my hands from the ankle to place them on either side of my head, instead.

The pain was immediate after I had given permission, racking my body with tremors. I could feel that even though I was going through a seizure, Zaraki wasn't letting up on stomping on my stomach. My seizure lasted a few more seconds, then ended. The disease was now seated in the position of control beside me. We were, yet again, moving as one.

Without any hesitation, we grabbed both of Zaraki's legs, throwing him into the wall behind us. We used his moment of daze to get to our feet, stomping down on Zaraki's stomach. Wrapping our hands around his thick neck, we leaned down into closer range of his face.

"How does it feel to be in the position of the victim, Zaraki Kenpachi?" the disease growled, glaring down into his fearless eyes.

"This is great! Where did you suddenly get all this power?" he shouted, kicking us back into the floor.

We fell onto our butt, Zaraki bringing a fist down. We rolled out of the way, sweeping a leg into his feet. Zaraki fell over, onto his face. He was using his hands to lift himself off of the floor when we stomped down in between his shoulder blades, putting all of our weight into it. He only let out a small cough to show that he was actually in pain. The disease used our face to smirk as wide as he could triumphantly.

"Stay down, like the annoying dog you are," he demanded, using his hand to slam his face into the floor with a sickening crack.

I would have flinched if I hadn't been caught up in the bloodlust. I was now urging the disease to continue in his assault. He gladly did so, lifting up Zaraki's bloodied face, only to slam it down again. The crack was louder this time, making me quite satisfied.

"Does it hurt yet?" he asked hopefully, repeating the process of slamming Zaraki's face with every syllable.

Some of the people who had gathered around us to see the fight were now backing away rapidly in fear. We smirked at our superiority over the people in the room, tossing Zaraki into the wall again, like a rag doll. Watching him crash into the wall, we smirked even more when there was another harsh sound from the collision. Zaraki's unconscious body crumpled to the floor. We turned to look at the gathered crowd, sizing everyone up.

"Who's next?" we challenged.

We noticed that some people had actually begun to run away, desperate to escape harm. We would have just charged into the remaining crowd, but somebody had started to elbow past the others. We saw the messy mop of white hair before we actually saw Koichi emerge from the crowd, yelling for us to stop. He barely spared Zaraki a glance before staring deep into our eyes.

"Ichigo, don't hurt anyone else, it's over," Koichi ordered solemnly.

Both the disease and I felt that Koichi spoke the truth, knowing that we shouldn't harm too many people.

"_Well, King, time's up!" _the disease declared.

As the disease faded from control, so did my consciousness. The last thing that I remember is falling forward on top of Koichi, making him gasp in shock and blush heavily. I barely managed a smirk before falling completely asleep.

I was so screwed. I knew I was screwed, because Koichi was going to kick my ass as soon as he knew I was awake. I had embarrassed him in front of practically the entire asylum, even if it wasn't entirely my fault. The point was that he'd most likely see it as my fault.

"_Jeez, King, don't look at everything so negatively," _the disease grumbled, _"he won't kill you…"_

"The reason why I'm looking at it negatively is because it _will _be," I backfired, staring at the crisp hospital covers.

"Oh, you're awake," said Koichi.

I jumped at the sound of his voice, forcing myself not to hide under the covers. I warily looked up to meet his eyes.

"I'm in trouble, aren't I?" I asked him.

"What? Why would you be in trouble?" his voice sounded confused, "Oh… You mean from before you fainted. No, you're not in trouble. It was self defense and all-"

"No! I meant when I fainted on you," I interjected.

Koichi's cheeks reddened heavily, "Um… that… uh… that wasn't your fault, either… um, uh… Just forget about it, okay?"

I jumped again when his voice suddenly grew harsh, "If you say so."

The disease snickered. I hissed at him to shut up. Koichi looked upset, which meant that I ended up having to apologize and explain that it was the disease who I had said that to. He still seemed upset, baffling me to no end.

"Got any plans for today?" Koichi asked me out of the blue.

"No, why would I? We're in an asylum," I muttered in response.

"Well, I was thinking that we could kind of hang out back at the room. Today's a free day for us, so I figured we could play a game or two…" he said abashedly.

"… Sure…" I said.

"Oh, okay. I understand that you wouldn't want to do anything with me, seeing as I'm-" he stopped mid sentence, "Wait, did you just say yes?"

"… Yeah…" I replied.

"Great!" he grinned, tugging me up from the hospital bed.

I ended up having to run to keep up with Koichi. I swore to myself that he seemed way too happy about hanging out. The room was just as empty as we had left it, bloodstains and all. The buckets were on the floor, filled nearly to the brim with blood. I guess house keeping hadn't come through, or something. Come to think of it, we didn't have any games in our room.

I sat down on his bed and looked at Koichi. He sat down beside me, sighing quietly.

"So, what game did you have in mind?" I asked him.

"I have no idea. I didn't think that far…" he trailed off.

"I think I've got something to play," I offered, turning towards him.

"You do?" he asked me curiously.

"Yup," I said, "but I don't know if you'll like the game…"

"Try me," Koichi challenged.

I pushed him down on the bed, then pulled myself up on the bed. He looked up at me. I stood up and jumped on the bed.

"The bouncy bed game!" I shouted, laughing.

Koichi seemed a little crestfallen, but got up and jumped with me. I jumped at him and shoved him, then bounced away, nearly falling off, but caught myself. I'm not sure how long we had jumped, having a war on the bed, but in the end we collapsed onto the soft pillow beside one another. I smiled, looking at him.

"That was fun," I said.

"Okay, but it's my turn to pick a game," he pouted.

"Sure."

"How about we play…" he trailed off.

Koichi abruptly climbed on top of me, gazing down at me face. I gazed back at him, deep into his eyes. I didn't quite understand what he was doing, but he started to come down closer to me. My heart started to race as he got closer, my body freezing and yet it felt hot. When we were nearly touching, he stopped. I almost whined, but took it upon myself to finish the deed. I leaned up into Koichi, cupping his face in my hands and meeting his lips with my own.

We both closed our eyes closed in bliss, feeling each other up and breathing in the heat of the kiss. I felt Koichi's hands travel down my body, roaming over my curves and massaging my sweet spots. I moaned into his mouth, wrapping my arms around his neck. Koichi licked my lips, pleading for entrance desperately. I welcomed him into my mouth, closing it once again and sucking on his tongue like one would a sweet piece of Hershey's chocolate.

Koichi groaned, pushing his knee between my thighs and rubbing it against my groin. As I released his tongue, I moaned into his mouth. His hand came up under my shirt, rubbing the soft skin there while he searched inside my warm cavern with his tongue. I moaned again into his mouth when his fingers brushed against one of my nipples.

When his tongue began to withdraw from my mouth, I brushed my own tongue against his, lowering my hand down to rub his back. We broke apart, gasping and panting for breath, a string of saliva connecting our lips. Once we had both gained back our breath, we kissed each other again, ravishing each other's bodies.

I felt Koichi's hand slip under the waist band of my pants and grabbed his wrist. He looked up at me questioningly. I bit my lip.

"I don't think I'm ready for something like that. If we're going to be together, we're taking it slow," I said breathily.

Koichi nodded, "I understand. I'll wait until your ready."

I then smiled and pulled him down, kissing him again. Our last kiss was short and sweet, then I hopped out of the bed. Koichi seemed confused by my actions. I looked back at him as I grabbed the knob.

"I'm going to go visit Grimmjow and Ulquiorra. Do you want to come with me?" I offered.

"Sure," he said, getting up and following me.

I realized that I had no idea where either of their rooms were when I got about halfway down the hallway. Making a complete U-turn, I headed for the nurse's desk. I was also sure to grab the buckets while we were at it. When we got to the desk, blood filled buckets in hand, Hanatarou looked a little horrified.

"Relax," I said, "this is normal for us. I wanted to know if you knew where Grimmjow or Ulquiorra's rooms were?"

As Hanatarou took the buckets from us, setting them down, he said, "Actually, their roommates. Number 4 and number 6 stay in room 653. That's over in building 1."

"Thanks," I said, tugging Koichi off towards the exit of building 3.

It was a short walk to building 1, then we had to search the hallways for the number 653. I was walking by when Koichi grabbed my arm and tugged me back. I glared at him, but he pointed at the number we had just been looking for.

"Oh," I muttered, "that's where it was…"

I knocked on the door, but nobody answered. Knocking again, I did not get an answer. I knocked and knocked, then finally got fed up. Throwing open the door, I got a little embarrassed at what I found. A blush came over my face and I took a step back.

"I am _so _sorry!" I shouted, slamming the door shut.

Sitting against the wall opposite of door 653, I hugged my knees and hid my face behind them. Koichi sat down beside me, patting my back and rubbing soothing circles into it.

"It's okay," he told me, "you didn't know. You just made a small mistake. It isn't your fault."

After about ten minutes of Koichi calming me down, the door opened to reveal Grimmjow and Ulquiorra. They walked over to us.

"Sorry about that, Ichi," Grimmjow said, "didn't mean to scar you there."

I peeked up over my knees at them, saying, "I am so sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" Grimmjow asked, "It's just casual sex."

Ulquiorra then slapped Grimmjow over the back of his head, producing an "ow," from him. I stifled a giggle, but did smile gratefully up at the two of them.

"Wow," Koichi said, "but I'd never imagine Ulquiorra on the bottom. Just wow."

"Oh, that wasn't Grimmjow back there," Ulquiorra replied, "that was Pantera."

Grimmjow pouted, "That's the _only _time I'm on the top…"

"I wonder if I would be on the top?" I asked out loud.

Just about everyone in the room did a double take at me. I looked at them innocently.

"What?"

"_Uh, King, slim chances there," _the disease snickered.

"No, they aren't. I'm sure that there is a good chance that I could be on top," I argued.

"_Sure, you in what universe?" _he asked.

"Why aren't you on my side?" I backfired.

"_Because it's obvious that you're an uke," _he replied coolly.

"I am _not _an- What's an uke?" I asked.

I felt as if he had rolled his eyes at me, _"An uke is the person on the bottom."_

"Okay, then what's the person on the top called?" I asked him.

"_That would be seme, which you are not," _he replied.

"I could too be seme!" I shouted.

Everyone jumped when I shouted. It was then I realized I had blocked out everything but the disease, and they had all been watching me the whole time. I chuckled nervously.

"Sorry about that," I apologized, "argument with the disease again."


End file.
